Manning: 193 starts. Browns: Three starters within three games?

Everyone knows the Browns have gone through quarterbacks, but the arrival of Eli Manning makes Cleveland's situation look downright bizarre.

By Steve Doerschuk Repository sports writer

CLEVELAND You never know about a Browns quarterback. Snap your fingers and there is a new one. Snap them again and he turns into the next one.

With a Cleveland QB, any given Sunday could be his last, as with Josh McCown's turn against the Giants today.

Eli Manning arrives having started 193 consecutive games for New York.

The longest streak for a Browns QB during that time was 23 games by Derek Anderson (2007-08).

The longest streak by Browns QBs since the last time Manning faced them (2012 in a 41-27 win against Brandon Weeden) were:

- Five games by Cody Kessler this year.

- Six games by McCown last year.

- Thirteen games by Brian Hoyer in 2014.

- Four games by Jason Campbell in 2013.

Robert Griffin III, who had a one-start streak snapped by a shoulder injury in the opener, could be back after the bye for a Dec. 11 game against Cincinnati.

Snap. Time will fly. It will be draft day, April 29 in Philadelphia. The Browns will draft a quarterback, perhaps at No. 1 overall, but almost certainly somewhere.

The new QB will say he is thrilled to be a Brown. Privately, he may be scared to death. He will come to a city where the ghost of Johnny Football roams.

Griffin might be given a chance to revive his career, but the trend has been a tidal wave, with prospects flying like fish, and always disappearing, usually in a hurry.

Some notable examples of short-timers:

On April 16, 2000, as a second-year expansion team, the Browns wound up with 13 picks. They had taken Tim Couch at No. 1 in 1999, but when it was time to make their ninth pick of the draft, they saw a passer who was too good to pass up.

So, they spent a sixth-round pick on Spergon Wynn, with Tom Brady still on the board.

The season came. Couch got hurt. Veteran Doug Pederson struggled, including in a 24-3 loss to the Giants. The team was in a 1-9 stretch when Wynn got a Dec. 3 start at Jacksonville.

On his first series, Wynn excited his coaches with a 27-yard scramble. It would have been better if a hurricane had blown up in the Atlantic and they had stopped the game right there. The gain was wiped out by a holding call on Roman Oben. Chris Gardocki punted. Wynn's next four series netted minus-9 yards. The Browns lost 48-0. Wynn's career as a Brown was over.

Snap.

Charlie Frye arrived in Round 3 in 2005. His third year was supposed to be the one in which he lived up to those Deep Fryed billboards from his Akron Zips days.

He started the 2007 opener against Pittsburgh. Rob Chudzinski, who six years later would get one year as the Browns' head coach, was Frye's new offensive coordinator. He gave the kid one half.

Anderson played the second half, and Frye was traded the next day. When he started for Oakland at Cleveland two days after Christmas 2009, it was like you were watching a ghost.

Snap.

There was a book by and a song about Colt McCoy when he arrived in Cleveland in 2010. As a Round 3 pick, he wasn't supposed to play at first, but Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace got hurt.

McCoy posted a 2-6 record as a rookie starter and became The Man in his second year.

On Dec. 8, 2011, in Pittsburgh, James Harrison delivered a hit to McCoy that cost him a one-game suspension. McCoy didn't start another game until three years later, with a different team.

There are plenty more of these short stories, including the one likely in the final paragraphs for McCown.

McCown is supposed to be a Brown through 2017, based on his contract. More likely, this will be his last start in Cleveland, and it's better than 50-50 he won't be on the roster when he turns 38 next July 4.

Kessler's situation bears an eerie similarity to McCoy's. Both were third-round picks settling in as the starter before getting kayoed by a Pittsburgh linebacker.

Kessler's second 2016 concussion makes it easier to turn back to Griffin. Some Browns fans groaned when "RG3" was signed, given the years that have passed since his 2012 success, and there were sighs when he lasted only one game before emerging with a serious shoulder injury.

This week, Griffin said he has "no doubt" he can be Cleveland's long-term starting quarterback.

"I can’t speak for coach or anyone else," he said, "but they have expressed that to me. I still feel like I can be the guy for this organization.”

The latest hope, Griffin, can relate to Couch, circa 2003.

Couch, 26, was a No. 1 pick in his fifth NFL season. Griffin, 26, was a No. 2 pick who is in his fifth year.

Butch Davis opted to start Kelly Holcomb over Couch to open 2003, but Holcomb broke a leg in Game 3. Scattered visions that Couch might yet make it flickered in an October night game at Pittsburgh. He led the Browns to a 33-13 victory.

Holcomb healed and returned. The Browns went back and forth between Holcomb and Couch. They were 4-11 when they arrived in Cincinnati for the season finale.

Couch led the Browns to a 22-14 victory. Then he got cut.

Snap.

It is 2016. Kessler started Game 11. McCown is supposed to start Game 12. Griffin might start Game 13.

It might seem odd to imagine that none of the three will ever start another game for the Browns after the Jan. 1 finale at Pittsburgh. Here, it seems normal.

Reach Steve at 330-580-8347 or steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP

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